The EERC's Second Major Carbon Sequestration Documentary Premieres on Prairie Public Television Thursday, April 17, 2008

April 14, 2008

GRAND FORKS - The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota has released the second of five documentaries focused on carbon sequestration and global climate change. "Reducing our Carbon Footprint: The Role of Markets" will premiere regionwide Thursday, April 17, 2008, at 8:30 p.m. (Central Daylight Time) on Prairie Public Television (check your local listings).

Reducing our Carbon Footprint was produced by the award-winning team at Prairie Public Broadcasting, in Fargo, North Dakota, in collaboration with the EERC's Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership.

Produced for a general audience, the 30-minute program provides an introduction to carbon management and the role of carbon markets in helping to finance projects that will lead to a low carbon world. The show includes footage and interviews from Brazil, Europe, Canada, and the United States.

"This documentary highlights the importance of markets in facilitating carbon management," said Ed Steadman, Senior Research Advisor and PCOR Partnership Project Manager. "The markets allow capital to flow to energy projects that are readily available now which offset the carbon output of major sources worldwide," he said.

The first documentary produced by the PCOR Partnership called "Nature in the Balance" was released in May 2005. The program introduced audiences to the capture and long-term storage (sequestration) of carbon dioxide (CO2) in North America. The video focused on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory's (NETL's) seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships and described their role in assessing opportunities for reducing CO2 emissions worldwide to reduce the risk of global warming.

"Nature in the Balance" also provided information about the PCOR Partnership, which is one of DOE's seven regional partnerships designed to evaluate potential opportunities for CO2 sequestration in the central interior of North America. Since its inception in 2003, the PCOR Partnership has brought together more than 85 public and private-sector partners in all or part of nine states and four Canadian provinces to address carbon management issues.

The third PCOR production on "Terrestrial CO2 Sequestration" is due out later this year. For more information, visit www.undeerc.org/pcor.